Minimising employee absence through Early Intervention
While you can’t always prevent sickness and absence, Early Intervention could be the key to a healthier, more productive workplace.
Reduce employee absence with Early Intervention
Helping reduce employee absence
Our expert team is fully equipped to help you manage employee absence.
Early Intervention specialists give employees the support they need to return back to work before absence turns into a claim – with 96% having a positive outcome from our service if we’re notified within the first four weeks.
Manage employee absence
By working together, we can focus on each employee’s needs, putting them on the road to recovery sooner.
We provide confidential and impartial spaces to discuss employee problems, can recommend clinical support and access to counselling and support, and we aim to help employees get back on their feet as soon as possible.
Providing a safe environment
Working in long-term partnership with HCB Group helps us resolve difficult and emotive situations. We work to create safe and independent environments for individuals, while working closely with employers to outline timescales and practical steps towards returning to work.
Throughout, our communications with both parties are comprehensive and clear, helping everyone feel comfortable about where we are in the process and our steps to help employees recover from ill-health.
Supporting employee wellbeing
We offer a suite of wellbeing support to help your colleagues with their health, through access to GP24, our Employee Assistance Programme and early intervention.
How many employees have a positive outcome when we're notified early?
Early Intervention support timelines
1 to 2 weeks
In the first one to two weeks, colleagues should focus on following the company’s absence reporting procedures.
3 to 4 weeks
At the 3-4 week mark, you’ll need to let us know the colleague is absent. This is important because it gives them the best chance of making an early return to work.
End of deferred period
Our claims assessment should start at 10-14 weeks for the majority of schemes or 4-6 weeks for those schemes with a 13-week deferred period, to ensure a decision can be made before the end of the deferred period. If a team member remains absent, where appropriate we will begin to make payments. We will also conduct regular reviews of the case.
However, they’ll also have:
- Access to the MetLife Wellbeing Hub
- Online health and wellbeing tools
- Health information and advice
Here's what we'll do next:
- Assess early return to work support
- Consider treatment funding
- Create a support plan
- Determine if expert clinical help is needed
FAQs
Early intervention is all about getting ahead of potential problems before they get serious. This minimises time off and prevents long-term ill health, which is so vital for employees in feeling cared for and supported by their employers.
Of course, losing employees to long-term absence can be expensive for employers, with some estimates putting the average annual cost of absence for a 1,000-employee organisation at £1.7 5 million*, taking into account the cost of temporary staff, administration, lost productivity, recruitment and training.
*Source: The HR Director, Impact of Absence Calculator report, 2023
Early intervention is key because it helps manage health issues as early as possible, preventing them from developing into more serious problems. These more serious issues can be time consuming and costly, so early intervention is a smart business choice.
Early intervention is proven to reduce absence levels by helping colleagues return to work more quickly. In fact, we’ve found that 96% of employees have a positive outcome from early intervention when we are notified of their absence within the first four weeks*.
*Source: MetLife internal data, April 2024
Speak to our business development team to see how employee bereavement works to support your employees. You can call us on 0800 917 1112 or email on eb@metlife.uk.com.
Early intervention support is a key benefit of our Group Income Protection product, meaning all your employees will have access to this support as soon as your policy starts.
For more information, read our early intervention flyer here.
Contact us
We're here to help
